Re: Get to know your fellow board members....

Please tell us a culture shock story you've experienced during your travels.

What tipped you off?

Well ok, this was something of a shock:

The first game I went to I almost had my ass stomped in for not singing the songs.. I barely spoke any Italian let alone Sicilian. Pretty strange when a bunch of dudes wearing pink and sporting ridiculous haircuts start to fuck with you for not singing. but i had to learn, it was hard at first. This is where I learned how to roll hash spliffs, while trying to comprehend what these psychos were saying. Lots of riots, split heads, fireworks and thuggery that I had not really seen in such mass. It seems everyone goes to the games for a different reason. Cops love to fuck with hooligans, hooligans dont even watch the game, they pace the aisles rallying up the troops and changing chants; upper society sits in the covered seats (it tends to rain in Sicily), and everyone in between sits in the curves, where its all good. You can do practically anything in Renzo Barbera stadium; its a fucking madhouse.

Re: Get to know your fellow board members....

Please describe your perfect day. From the moment you awaken to the moment you close your peepers.

Lots of details please.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where and why?

ahhh this is fun.

Well I will awake in Pantelleria, a small island north of Tunisia quite early in the morning, before sunrise. i'd strap on some shoes and a bat benetar (sp?) head band and go for a run. I'd pass the Arch of the Elephant right as the sun broke the horizon:

I'd return home and shower in my outside shower, still enjoying the sunrise, and retreat indoors where I'd dine on fresh citrus with my harem. well scratch the harem. i'd love to be with Valeria, this girl i let get away in high school who is just insanely smart and beautiful. we'd relax in this room:

I'd then board my private jet/hydrofoil and jet over to Cairo. Being a short trip, I'd probably opt to listen to a new album or two, or perhaps just listen to a bunch of Underworld in anticipation of August. After I arrive in Cairo I'd pay a special visit to my friends at the Giza Zoo, the most terrifying place on earth. After that i'd retreat to the houseboat with friends and write on the walls... as such:

this is where it gets blurry. I'd either hop on a helicopter to head to Dahab on the Sinai where i'd hang in my favorite spot in the hills with friends:

oooor

stay in cairo and feast on Molakheyah at Abu Sid in Zamalek:

if in Dahab we'd get back on the helicopter and head to Pacha Sharm el-Sheikh, where, hopefully, some ridiculous artist/dj will spin all night till we have to crawl to the Ritz on Shark Bay.

if in cairo we'd retreat to the Odeon bar. and smoke shisha and drink contraband Johnnie Walker Blue Label till we have to be escorted down the elevator...

I'd also be happy with getting really drunk at al-Hurriyah bar and then eating a shitload of acid with the PAW folks and showing them around the pyramids. im flexible

ANYWHERE I COULD LIVE?: well my first answer is Mongolia, but seeing as how i've put in years to understand these bastards i'd have to retire to Sicily. Thats where the heart is..

Re: Get to know your fellow board members....

Aww, forzapalermo04. Good people.

We haven't chatted in quite some time, but I believe you mentioned you are (or were recently) employed as a college instructor. If you would, tell us a little more about this. What you teach/taught, why you chose to teach these particular topics, why you think they are/aren't important for the youngins to be aware of, how young you were when you started teaching, if you were nervous on your first day, your pet peeves as an instructor (poor grammar, run-on sentences [he he], snoring in class) and anything else you'd care to share about your past, present or future as a college instructor.

In the unfortunate possibility that my poor memory has betrayed me and you are not and never have been a college instructor, please tell us of a critically acclaimed, widely adored (in our circles) artist that you just don't get.

Re: Get to know your fellow board members....

Originally Posted by JewFace

Aww, forzapalermo04. Good people.

We haven't chatted in quite some time, but I believe you mentioned you are (or were recently) employed as a college instructor. If you would, tell us a little more about this. What you teach/taught, why you chose to teach these particular topics, why you think they are/aren't important for the youngins to be aware of, how young you were when you started teaching, if you were nervous on your first day, your pet peeves as an instructor (poor grammar, run-on sentences [he he], snoring in class) and anything else you'd care to share about your past, present or future as a college instructor.

In the unfortunate possibility that my poor memory has betrayed me and you are not and never have been a college instructor, please tell us of a critically acclaimed, widely adored (in our circles) artist that you just don't get.

I taught a traditions class which is a general overview of the middle east.. history,religion, politics...etc.

wow on the first day i was a bit nervous. I didnt want to deal with any shitheads or religious whackos..you know the type. This class is notorious for knock down drag out fights over palestine/israel and luckily, I never had any emotional types, just a bunch of curious students. Yea I guess it was really hard not to flirt with the girls in the class.. I totally handed out some A's that should of gotten B's, because of some nice C's. haha..

i guess i chose to teach (its technically a TA job but the professor just grades papers, she never teaches) that course because its what i do.. i have degrees in arabic near eastern studies and journalism and have been over there a bunch, so i think it was cool to have a young guy teach them some of these crucial elements (Islam, colonialism in the m.e., politics, how the U.S. is intertwined with these countries) instead of some stuffy old guy. I definitely feel that people learned a lot about things they'd had questions about, but nobody to ask.. like the whats up with the headscarf, 'why do they hate us?' and do they all ride camels and live in pyramids (yes i've gotten that).

as for being an instructor... i guess i expect more out of myself than anything.. i dont have pet peeves bc its my fault is someone is snoring or goofing off. I always try to make it fun and unpredictable. one day i took my kids out for beers to watch Egypt play in the African Cup final. needless to say i made some fans (and we won the title!!!). i also got to teach them some cuss words and pick up lines in arabic, which might have been a mistake. It was fucking glorious to see how comfortable people became with the subject over time.. bc most students had no idea what they were getting into. sometimes the convo got heavy.. female gential mutilation, women's rights, suicide attacks, terror, poverty, corruption. Thats life though. I tried to share the side I saw, the goofy, weird, human side that you see everywhere you go if you're paying attention.

as for an artist i don't quite get that's big here: The White Stripes

ok ok ok Jack White is fucking brilliant, you happy? but their music is just so mundane at times.

another one: Justice. maybe Paulb should explain this one... there just alright to me.

Re: Get to know your fellow board members....

Forzapalermo,
I do believe we met at Prodigy@ the Palladium during the group meetup, yes? (I know I wouldn't have slapped your hand away if we did...) Anyway, sounds like you've had many opportunities to travel to faraway places, but where are your birth roots located and tell us about your parents, siblings, any pets? (I seem to recall pictures of you when you first came to the board, holding an adorable baby tiger. Am I right?) How about a girlfriend, or, are you a worldly single stud-muffin?

"Who is this doing this synthetic type of Alpha Beta psychedelic funkin'?"CHEMICAL BROTHERS

Re: Get to know your fellow board members....

Originally Posted by BROKENDOLL

Forzapalermo,
I do believe we met at Prodigy@ the Palladium during the group meetup, yes? (I know I wouldn't have slapped your hand away if we did...) Anyway, sounds like you've had many opportunities to travel to faraway places, but where are your birth roots located and tell us about your parents, siblings, any pets? (I seem to recall pictures of you when you first came to the board, holding an adorable baby tiger. Am I right?) How about a girlfriend, or, are you a worldly single stud-muffin?

WE DID MEET at Prodigy. I was quite euphoric at the time. I think I also walked passed you at coachella and did a double take but you faded into the sea of humans.

Ahh..roooots. Well my family is all from Boston or Kosovo. So east and way east. But I guess they all got sick of that and moved to the west coast. I was born in Tucson in 85 and lived in Connecticut and Phoenix (and tucson) till I was 12, when we moved to Louisville, KY. Shortly after being tossed from two catholic schools i was sent to military school in Harlingen, TX. After two years of that crap i came back to louisville one year ahead of everybody else. a few things happened and I decided fuck all of this and got on a plane to visit this girl i hooked up with in the summer's at my grandparent's lake house. so I'm in rome, feeling like a bad ass lover and I go to this girls house. Well.. long story short Ilaria's fiance answered the door and I was kinda stuck in italy with nothing and nobody. so i moved to palermo and enrolled in highschool.. Here i was kinda adopted by second family after getting kicked out of another family's house for smoking hash spliffs on the balcony. The family basically gave me a free apartment in heaven. here's a look of us jamming on my balcony:

so roots: Arizona-Kentucky-Sicily

as for my blood family, I have a wonderful single mother who is absolutely fucking insane and if it werent for my overzealous use of substances i'd totally bring her out to a show/festival. she needs it

my sister just graduated highschool and is going to try to be a Vet (apparently veterinary school is harder to get into than med school...?) she took up horse riding (eventing) when we were in KY and hasn't let it go. She has a horse that she bought and maintains on her own. pretty cool stuff

dad was a mafioso and i havent seen him since i was 3.

I have no pets as I've been moving quite a bit. I did rent an apartment in cairo that came with an awesome leather jacket and a pure bred persian cat who I named "hash money," because if he ever pissed us off i was gonna sell him. the photo of me and the baby lion was taken at the Giza Zoo which would scare the SHIT out of anyone on this board. I'd love to get an australian shepard one day.

girlfriend...meh... I actually just broke up with this girl i've been madly in love with for seven long years. it's been a month... i think some here actually met her at the NIN show in phx. So yea I'm single and trying to appreciate it. still kind of in that grief period though. I think that's why i've been going to so many shows, just to get away from the bs. But some girl called me yesterday and confessed her love.. it was totally bizarre, hadn't seen her for years. But she's gonna come through for a night so... at least i'm getting laid, right?

Re: Get to know your fellow board members....

Originally Posted by JClemy

What has been your most interesting class discussion that you can remember?

I was trying to explain how fucked up the Turkish government is one day by using an example of a friend's experience. She (elif shafak) was arrested when she was 8 months pregnant for "Insulting Turkey." What's ridiculous is it was a character in ONE OF HER BOOKS that talked about the Armenian Genocide in an un-turkish way.. you're basically not supposed to talk about it.

this sparked a really good conversation about comparative media, law and punishment in the U.S. and the middle east. even the bro's were talking

Originally Posted by kingsblend420

F,

Are you like that normally or was it the drugs?

24/7

Originally Posted by TommyboyUNM

Forza,

When your girlfriend said I had a nice smile, how much quivering was in her voice?

scale of 1-100... 95, she said you didnt know how to shave that well, docked you 5 points in the quivering dept.

Originally Posted by boarderwoozel3

^
Le lulz.

Forza, please name a few pop culture icons or phenomenons that you find are overrated and tell us why you feel that way. Feel free to toss in one hat you feel is underrated.

Pepsi or Coke?

What's your go-to alcoholic beverage?

Well I honestly do not understand the fascination with "reality television" and personalities around it. It's just so...pointless. We'd all be better off without that crap.

Another icon that disturbs me is Madonna; sure the music's good, but she's just a gross ass lady. I don't think I'd want to even have tea with her.

Underrated- honestly i think dive bars are underrated.. i hate glitzy bars. I'd rather sit down next to some stinking old fart and talk wild stories over bourbon than sip pomegranate martinis in discomfort

Re: Get to know your fellow board members....

Originally Posted by forzapalermo04

WE DID MEET at Prodigy. I was quite euphoric at the time. I think I also walked passed you at coachella and did a double take but you faded into the sea of humans.

Ahh..roooots. Well my family is all from Boston or Kosovo. So east and way east. But I guess they all got sick of that and moved to the west coast. I was born in Tucson in 85 and lived in Connecticut and Phoenix (and tucson) till I was 12, when we moved to Louisville, KY. Shortly after being tossed from two catholic schools i was sent to military school in Harlingen, TX. After two years of that crap i came back to louisville one year ahead of everybody else. a few things happened and I decided fuck all of this and got on a plane to visit this girl i hooked up with in the summer's at my grandparent's lake house. so I'm in rome, feeling like a bad ass lover and I go to this girls house. Well.. long story short Ilaria's fiance answered the door and I was kinda stuck in italy with nothing and nobody. so i moved to palermo and enrolled in highschool.. Here i was kinda adopted by second family after getting kicked out of another family's house for smoking hash spliffs on the balcony. The family basically gave me a free apartment in heaven. here's a look of us jamming on my balcony:

so roots: Arizona-Kentucky-Sicily

as for my blood family, I have a wonderful single mother who is absolutely fucking insane and if it werent for my overzealous use of substances i'd totally bring her out to a show/festival. she needs it

my sister just graduated highschool and is going to try to be a Vet (apparently veterinary school is harder to get into than med school...?) she took up horse riding (eventing) when we were in KY and hasn't let it go. She has a horse that she bought and maintains on her own. pretty cool stuff

dad was a mafioso and i havent seen him since i was 3.

I have no pets as I've been moving quite a bit. I did rent an apartment in cairo that came with an awesome leather jacket and a pure bred persian cat who I named "hash money," because if he ever pissed us off i was gonna sell him. the photo of me and the baby lion was taken at the Giza Zoo which would scare the SHIT out of anyone on this board. I'd love to get an australian shepard one day.

girlfriend...meh... I actually just broke up with this girl i've been madly in love with for seven long years. it's been a month... i think some here actually met her at the NIN show in phx. So yea I'm single and trying to appreciate it. still kind of in that grief period though. I think that's why i've been going to so many shows, just to get away from the bs. But some girl called me yesterday and confessed her love.. it was totally bizarre, hadn't seen her for years. But she's gonna come through for a night so... at least i'm getting laid, right?

Very cool! I wonder if it's too late to just say, "fuck it," and become nomadic and experience even half the things you have in life? I had to laugh at the name, "Hash Money..." I often think of renaming my cat, "Taxidermist" whenever she has one of those passive-aggressive moments and attacks my leg! The fact that you were with someone for 7 years shows you have the ability to settle down, the breakup merely means it's not quite time yet. Don't let it hinder your euphoria!

...How cool. I met a real nomad!
One more question...Nothing has scared the shit out of me yet around here, and these guys can be animals, so exactly why would I be scared of the Giza Zoo?

"Who is this doing this synthetic type of Alpha Beta psychedelic funkin'?"CHEMICAL BROTHERS

Re: Get to know your fellow board members....

Originally Posted by BROKENDOLL

Very cool! I wonder if it's too late to just say, "fuck it," and become nomadic and experience even half the things you have in life? I had to laugh at the name, "Hash Money..." I often think of renaming my cat, "Taxidermist" whenever she has one of those passive-aggressive moments and attacks my leg! The fact that you were with someone for 7 years shows you have the ability to settle down, the breakup merely means it's not quite time yet. Don't let it hinder your euphoria!

...How cool. I met a real nomad!
One more question...Nothing has scared the shit out of me yet around here, and these guys can be animals, so exactly why would I be scared of the Giza Zoo?

well I'd say you're sitting pretty in the valley with coach so close and la not to far. but if you're down for some adventures, i'd say do it immediately. sell everything and go.

attack kitties are no good. hash money was really weird and some even thought he was a djinn. as for the girl.. im glad its over.

As for the ZOO. Well first of all, i think the combination of animals in foreigners overwhelms many. I cant tell you how many photos were taken of me as i walked around the zoo. some parents asked me to pose with their kids. Let me show you the Giza Zoo:

festering barrels of unidentifiable animal flesh were sitting outside of this cage..

lions love being scratched behind the ears

that guy looked WAY TOO HAPPY to be surrounded by that man goats...

this lady thought it would be a great idea to have her baby shake hands with a ferocious bear. oh thats right, walk right up to any animal...

...but for the more dangerous animals, like say jaguars, are behind a protective barrier. in this case, just lift your child over the gate, tip the dude a few pounds and get that precious photo of your little one inches away from death by angry feline.

Re: Get to know your fellow board members....

Wow! The Giza Zoo looks insane, though just a step above the San Francisco Zoo.

Matt, you're a well traveled man, but I'm sure you've got a list. What are your top destinations you'd like to visit in the next 5-10 years? (We'll shake the money tree and assume that financing won't be an issue.)

Re: Get to know your fellow board members....

well I'd say you're sitting pretty in the valley with coach so close and la not to far. but if you're down for some adventures, i'd say do it immediately. sell everything and go.

attack kitties are no good. hash money was really weird and some even thought he was a djinn. as for the girl.. im glad its over.

As for the ZOO. Well first of all, i think the combination of animals in foreigners overwhelms many. I cant tell you how many photos were taken of me as i walked around the zoo. some parents asked me to pose with their kids. Let me show you the Giza Zoo: